Guest Posted July 10, 2002 Report Share Posted July 10, 2002 Apart from overnight transfers to Samui, Phuket and Pattaya, I've avoided Bangkok for many years because the fifthy air always seems to spark a nasty attack of conjunctivitis. If you haven't had the great misfortune of this experience, your lucky. It starts with itchy eyes and in the matter of a few hours leads to this unbearable pain that feels like someone is rubbing sandpaper over your eyes every time you blink. This is followed by my lady of the night guiding blind me to the nearest hospital and hotel room confinement for the next day (I know it could be worse!) Anyone else been struck down by the cursed conjunctivitis and how did you cope? Anyhow, I've got a possible "business" trip to BKK coming up and as I now use disposable contact lenses, feel I should be OK, but better safe than sorry. Can any of you recommend anything sold over the counter to prevent an attack? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 10, 2002 Report Share Posted July 10, 2002 'de ol' pink eye... in these parts of the world often transmitted by the lady of the night herself... just go to any pharmacy, they will snigger and give you some antibiotic eyedrops which will take care of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lembeh Posted July 10, 2002 Report Share Posted July 10, 2002 Roppongi Better ignore flys post (sorry fly) as its frankly misleading. "conjunctivitis" has three primary causes 1. Viral conjunctivitis 2. Bacterial conjunctivitis and 3. Allergic conjunctivitis What you have sounds like allergic conjunctivitis. There is a diagnostic test that should distinguish which type you get (tear film analysis) which looks at antibodies. Best treatment for allergic conj then would be an antihistamine. Alternatively if it is a bacterial one, then an antibiotic would be prescribed. There is one other special type of allergic conjunctivitis, giant papillary conjunctivitis, that affects contact lens wearers which may also be your cause. Final advice? Get it checked out by a competant ophthalmologist. May save you a lot of pain! cheers -josh- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 10, 2002 Report Share Posted July 10, 2002 Thanks both Josh and Fly. As I said originally, as I haven't stayed in BKK for years, it hasn't flaired up, but as I could be in City of Angels soon, I'm thinking prevention is better than cure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 10, 2002 Report Share Posted July 10, 2002 i actually had once an allergic conjunctivitis, everybody thought i caught the pink eye... very embarrassing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiery Jack Posted July 10, 2002 Report Share Posted July 10, 2002 Yeah, I got that motherf*cker once too in BKK, years ago, from the hotel swimming pool I reckoned. It was a pain in the ass as well as the (pink) eyes: I was working and everyone kept saying "Have you been boozing already?" (at 10AM... ). Got some drops from a pharmacy somewhere down Sukhumvit and it went away within 48 hours, never to return. j Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomc12 Posted July 11, 2002 Report Share Posted July 11, 2002 Sounds like you have allergic conjunctivitis-quite common from all the air pollution in cities like Bangkok. Get on a NSAID before going to Bangkok and bring along a bottle of artificial tears. If you are using daily disposable lens, you may be okay to continue their useage, but it would be prudent to bring your glasses in case of a severe flare-up. Cool compresses also help as well as vasoconstrictors/antihistamnines. I don't know whether you can get a mast-cell stabilizer like Pantanol over the counter in Bangkok, but it is quite helpful for allergic conjunctivitis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hidy Ho Posted July 16, 2002 Report Share Posted July 16, 2002 Josh, You *can* get conjunctivitis from the ladies of the night, right? On my very first trip, I returned to US with a bad case. My eye was really swollen and finally I had to go to an emergency room .. where the doc gave me some antibiotic (?) ointment to put in the eye. It was really yucky treatment ... and took over a month to heal. The end result was that I was left with *scars* on the cornea of my eye that slightly impacted my vision. I got rid of this scar when I fixed my vision using PRK procedure. Not a good thing to have - visually - and I got a lot of ribbing from my medical friends who thought I got this through my first visit to to LOS nightlife. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 26, 2002 Report Share Posted July 26, 2002 Boy, I'm really happy I found the forum. This is easily the BEST forum in Thailand and one of the best I've ever read. Serious posters offering real advice. Damn! This is helpful and I appreciate it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 26, 2002 Report Share Posted July 26, 2002 Mate, I owe you several ice cold beers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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